oOo
Noni watched from across the square as the Doctor met up with Susan's ten-year-old self. She was a pretty little thing, with a thin, serious face and great dark eyes that seemed far older than the rest of her. Her shoulder-length hair could have done with a bit of brushing, but she looked otherwise healthy. So the old man hadn't done such a bad job after all, although Noni wasn't happy that he'd allowed her wander around by herself on a strange planet.
She was aching to join them, to talk to Susan, but she'd given the Doctor her word that she'd stay away. Reluctantly. She still wasn't talking to him, not really, but he'd refused to go without getting some sort of acknowledgment out of her. And since every second of delay in searching for Ace and Kyris brought another knot to her stomach, she'd nodded her agreement. She hadn't promised not to watch, however, so after the Doctor had exited the TARDIS so had she, keeping him discreetly in view through the crowded city.
The knots in her stomach increased the closer they came to the rendevous point. Once they arrived, she realized she had tiny dents in the palms of her hands where she'd clenched her fists tightly enough for the nails to dig in. She didn't want to be here, to see the proof that Kyris and Ace wouldn't be found in time to raise Susan themselves, but she forced herself to watch. The Doctor was talking; if there was one thing that man could do, it was talk, but Susan appeared to be holding her own, unafraid until the Doctor showed her his own double-pulse.
Noni tensed even as Susan tensed; the young girl was afraid the Gallifreyan stranger was here to take her grandfather away, punish him for stealing the TARDIS and running away from their home world. Noni remained tense even as Susan relaxed, reassured by the Doctor that that wasn't the case. All things Noni knew, from when she was still speaking to the Doctor.
She waited until he did what was he was there to do, giving Susan the hints she would in turn reveal to his own past self...even being born and raised on Gallifrey, it made Noni's head spin, trying to work out the correct grammar for such situations. Then she rose to her feet, turning swiftly and heading back for the TARDIS. She didn't want him to know she'd ever left, although she suspected he already did. But she didn't want him to be able to prove it for sure. She was still angry at him for giving up on Ace and Kyris, for resigning himself to what she refused to believe was the inevitable. There was hope; there was always hope, her parents had taught her to believe that. But it still wasn't fair, and she felt like hitting something, or chucking a knife, but she restrained herself.
I wish you hadn't killed him, Mother, she thought as she quickened her pace, threading her way through the stalls and stands of the market. It would have been lovely if the Master were still alive and somehow showed up here, so she could take her frustrations out on him, the one who truly deserved it. And what a triumph it would have been, if she could be the one to wrestle the truth out of him, to discover where he sent her friends and rescue them. They had to still be in his TARDIS, out there somewhere in the void, waiting for a signal from him that would never come.
Noni moved faster, hurrying to beat the Doctor back to the TARDIS, her bleak thoughts her only company.
The Doctor caught a glimpse of Noni moving swiftly through the marketplace and slowed his steps just enough to ensure her arrival at the TARDIS before him. Just enough to give her time to remove herself from the Console Room, if she so desired, to continue her sulk somewhere other than in his presence.
Not that he blamed her; she had every right to feel angry, betrayed, even, by her realization that he'd resigned himself to Ace and Kyris no longer being a part of Susan's life. He'd struggled with that decision, hadn't come to it as easily as Leela's eldest child seemed to believe. He would never stop looking for them, just as he'd told her. Nor would he believe they were dead. "But I wouldn't put it past you to have tucked them away somewhere no one would think to look," he murmured to himself as he strode past the food stands and candy vendors. "Places you believe no one remembers but yourself. But I remembered, and I reminded myself, so it's off to your private hidey-holes I go."
He refused to hope that they would be so easy to locate, but it was a start, which was more than he'd had before he consulted with his first self.
He lengthened his stride. Noni should be back by now, and he allowed himself to feel some of her urgency. Old business was taken care of; time to concentrate on the new.